The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office received a request from Hoopa Valley Tribal Police Department at about 1 p.m. this afternoon for a deputy to respond and assist with a welfare check of a possible suicidal female. The female was reportedly armed with a knife.

When a tribal police officer and Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived at the residence, located on Grasshopper Lane in Hoopa, they learned that the 31-year-old woman had gone into the bedroom with a 4-inch folding knife and her 19-month-old daughter. The female told the deputies that if they entered the room she would kill the child and then herself. She also indicated to the officers she wanted them to kill her. A deputy trained in crisis negotiations was one of the initial responders and spoke with the woman who held the 4-inch knife in her hand and the child in the other. The woman constantly adjusted the knife and child while threatening to kill the child. The deputy spoke with the woman for over an hour while a sheriff’s office sergeant crisis response supervisor and two members of the mental health crisis team responded to the scene from Eureka. The woman finally agreed to release the child to an adult cousin brought to the scene.

After releasing the child at about 2:30 p.m., the woman — who was still in possession of the knife — held the knife to her own throat, threatening to kill herself in front of the deputies and tribal police officers. After additional negotiations by the same deputy with the woman, he convinced her to put down the knife, which she did. She was then taken into custody. She was transported to mental health for an evaluation and then will be booked into the Humboldt County jail on charges of felony child endangerment and terrorist threats. No one was injured.

The sheriff’s office is asking anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity to call the sheriff’s office at 445-7251 or the sheriff’s office crime tip line at 268-2539.